River Communities

Bangladesh is considered to be one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The area is prone to natural catastrophes that come from increased rainfall, rising sea levels and tropical cyclones all of which are expected to increase. Consequences of environmental impacts seriously affect agriculture, water and food security, human health, shelter and massive population migration.People are mostly living along the large rivers of the Bengal Bay and on the silt islands of the same rivers in search of fertile land. Isolated and with extremely limited access to services, the char (silt island) people are among the most deprived of the country. Coping with shorter and shorter non-flooded periods and therefore ever diminishing agricultural output, these populations are again forced to migrate to the already over-populated cities in order to make a living with under-paid hard physical jobs.